ST HELENS will be hoping to ease the pain of last week's humiliation against Leeds Rhinos when they take on Huddersfield Giants at Knowsley Road tonight (ko 8pm).

Coach Ian Millward has selected the same 17 players which suffered the 70-0 hammering at Headingley.

Given his club's injury crisis Mill-ward may not have had much room for maneouvre, but he is hoping his charges will seize the opportunity to redeem themselves.

He said: "It's a chance for the play-ers to jump straight back on the horse.

"The magnitude of our defeat by Leeds hurt everybody at the club and so it should.

"We are not used to losing like that and if people's pride wasn't hurt I would wonder why.

"It was my worst defeat since I came to the club but it is up to us all to work harder to change things around. "We are back at Knowsley Road tonight which helps and we will be looking for some help from the fans to try to maintain our unbeaten home record."

The Giants may fancy their chances against a Saints side without Sean Long, Paul Sculthorpe, Chris Joynt, John Stankevitch and Mickey Higham.

Millward's former assistant Jon Sharp, now in charge at Huddersfield, will be hoping his side can recover from a disappointment of their own.

Last week's home defeat at the hands of Warrington Wolves severely dented the Giants play-off hopes and was symptomatic of a recent slump in form.

The Yorkshire side was the surprise package of the first half of the season in Super League as they established a position in the top six.

This week they have signalled their intention to continue their development with the signings of Australian Test three-quarter Michael DeVere and their former stand-off Chris Thorman, currently with Paramatta in the NRL.

Both players will be arriving at Huddersfield in time for Super League X.

It was just three weeks ago that St Helens visited the McAlpine Stadium and handed out a 50-8 thrashing to the Giants.

After a closely-fought first half and an interval score of 14-8, a Sculthorpe-inspired Saints outfit buried Hudders-field under a blizzard of second half tries.

Despite their setback at Leeds last week, Saints will still go into tonight's game as strong favourites.

Although the same players will be on view, Millward is likely to look for a different formula in terms of the way the team lines up.

Keiron Cunningham will again captain the side from hooker but Millward may choose to promote youngster James Roby from the bench to starting scrum-half.

He still believes they can finish as high as second place in Super League at the end of the regular season.

Everybody in the game knows wherever Saints finish, they are likely to be serious contenders for a Grand Final spot come the play-offs.

But in the short-term, a morale-boosting win over the Giants is required to convince some of their followers the wheels aren't coming off.